{"id":223935,"date":"2025-10-24T06:15:34","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T11:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/an-edible-fungus-could-make-paper-and-fabric-liquid-proof"},"modified":"2025-10-24T06:15:34","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T11:15:34","slug":"an-edible-fungus-could-make-paper-and-fabric-liquid-proof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/an-edible-fungus-could-make-paper-and-fabric-liquid-proof","title":{"rendered":"An edible fungus could make paper and fabric liquid-proof"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/an-edible-fungus-could-make-paper-and-fabric-liquid-proof.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As an alternative to single-use plastic wrap and paper cup coatings, researchers in <i>Langmuir<\/i> <a href=\"https:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/doi\/10.1021\/acs.langmuir.5c03185\" target=\"_blank\">report<\/a> a way to waterproof materials using edible fungus. Along with fibers made from wood, the fungus produced a layer that blocks water, oil and grease absorption. In a proof-of-concept study, the impervious film grew on common materials such as paper, denim, polyester felt and thin wood, revealing its potential to replace plastic coatings with sustainable, natural materials.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur hope is that by providing more ways to potentially reduce our reliance on <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/single-use+plastics\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">single-use plastics<\/a>, we can help lessen the waste that ends up in landfills and the ocean; nature offers elegant, <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/sustainable+solutions\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">sustainable solutions<\/a> to help us get there,\u201d says Caitlin Howell, the corresponding author of the study from the University of Maine.<\/p>\n<p>Fungi are more than their mushroom caps; underground they form an extensive, interwoven network of feathery filaments called mycelium. Recently, researchers have been inventing water-resistant materials made from these fibrous networks, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.acs.org\/pressroom\/presspacs\/2025\/july\/four-advances-that-could-change-fabric-and-the-clothing-you-wear.html\" target=\"_blank\">leather-like, electrically conductive gauze<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2022-03-sustainable-leather-yarn-paperfrom-bread-eating.html\">spun yarn<\/a>, because the surface of mycelium naturally repels water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As an alternative to single-use plastic wrap and paper cup coatings, researchers in Langmuir report a way to waterproof materials using edible fungus. Along with fibers made from wood, the fungus produced a layer that blocks water, oil and grease absorption. In a proof-of-concept study, the impervious film grew on common materials such as paper, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1506,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","category-sustainability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223935\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}